Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T23:58:29.713Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Financial Solidarity: The Future of Unions in the post-Janus Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2019

Leslie K. Finger Open the ORCID record for Leslie K. Finger [Opens in a new window]  and
Michael T. Hartney Open the ORCID record for Michael T. Hartney [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a “right-to-work” (RTW) legal regime for the entire government workforce (Janus v. AFSCME). While many predict lower union membership, few have considered how Janus will challenge the overall cost-sharing strategy that unions use to ensure their affiliates’ organizational maintenance and survival. Using the National Education Association (NEA) as our empirical example, we develop and test a theory we call “financial solidarity,” which posits that union organizational maintenance hinges on the transfer of resources from affiliates in strong labor states to those in weaker labor states. We demonstrate that this system is in effect by showing that most NEA revenue originates from dues and fees paid by teachers in strong labor states and then by examining the causal effect of labor law retrenchment on affiliates’ reliance on their national union between 2005–2018. We find that the NEA transfers an additional $6–10 per member and is significantly more likely to make a political contribution in an affiliate’s state in the aftermath of retrenchment. These findings highlight that unions are maintained on an organizational model that relies on a balance of strong and weak state labor laws. By upending that equilibrium, Janus threatens to undermine the power of labor in American politics.

Type
Special Section: Working Class Blues or Reds?
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IH1AJS

They would like to thank Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Sarah Reckhow, David Houston, Julia Coyoli, Paul Wilford, the Harvard Political Economy Workshop, and the attendees of the Radcliffe Interest Groups and Education Policy Workshop for their helpful feedback. They also are grateful to the reviewers for their thorough reading and helpful suggestions. The authors’ names are listed alphabetically to reflect equal contributions to the research

References

Antonucci, Mike. 2018a. “Antonucci: Never Heard of UniServ? It Holds the National Education Association Together—and Could Tear It Apart.” The74Million.org, March.Google Scholar
Antonucci, Mike. 2018b. “Exclusive: Ahead of a Key Supreme Court Decision, America’s Largest Teachers Union Slashes Budget by $50 Million, Projects That 300,000 Members May Leave.” The74Million.org, May.Google Scholar
Anzia, Sarah F. 2018. “Looking for Influence in All the Wrong Places: How Studying Subnational Policy Can Revive Research on Interest Groups.” Journal of Politics 81(1): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin and Nickerson, David W.. 2009. “Modeling Certainty with Clustered Data: A Comparison of Methods.” Political Analysis 17(2): 177–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, Jeff. 2000. “Unions Pull Out Stops for Elections.” Education Week, November 1.Google Scholar
Asher, Herbert B., Herberlig, Eric S., Ripley, Randall B., and Snyder, Karen. 2001. American Labor Unions in the Electoral Arena: People, Passions, and Power. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R. and Leech, Beth L.. 1998. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., Berry, Jeffrey M., Hojnacki, Marie, Kimball, David C., and Leech, Beth L.. 2009. Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bawn, Kathleen, Cohen, Martin, Karol, David, Masket, Seth, Noel, Hans, and Zaller, John. 2012. “A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 10(3): 571–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becher, Michael, Stegmueller, Daniel, and Käppner, Konstantin. 2018. “Local Union Organization and Law Making in the US Congress.” Journal of Politics 80(2): 539–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Fording, Richard C., Ringquist, Evan J., Hanson, Russell L., and Klarner, Carl. 2010. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States: A Re-appraisal.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 10:117–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dark, Taylor E. 1999. The Unions and the Democrats: An Enduring Alliance. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar
DiSalvo, Daniel. 2015. Government against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DiSalvo, Daniel. 2018. “Medicaid Politics in New York: Vested Interests and Policy‐Focused Analysis.” Political Science Quarterly 33(2): 291–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farber, Henry S. 2006. “Union Membership in the United States: The Divergence between the Public and Private Sectors.” In Collective Bargaining in Education: Negotiating Change in Today’s Schools, ed. Hannaway, Jane and Rotherham, Andrew J.. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Farber, Henry S., Herbst, Daniel, Kuziemko, Ilyana, and Naidu, Suresh. 2018. “Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data.” NBER Working Paper No. 24587.10.3386/w24587CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feigenbaum, James, Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander, and Williamson, Vanessa. 2018. “From the Bargaining Table to the Ballot Box: Political Effects of Right to Work Laws.” NBER Working Paper No. w24259.10.3386/w24259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finger, Leslie K. 2018. “Vested Interests and the Diffusion of Education Reform Across the States.” Policy Studies Journal 46(2): 378–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finger, Leslie K. 2019. “Interest Group Influence and the Two Faces of Power.” American Politics Research 47(4): 852–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavin, Patrick. 2016. “Labor Union Strength and the Equality of Political Representation.” British Journal of Political Science 48(4): 1075–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavin, Patrick and Radcliff, Benjamin. 2011. “Labor Union Membership and Voting Across Nations.” Electoral Studies 30(4): 633–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavin, Patrick and Hartney, Michael T.. 2015. “When Government Subsidizes Its Own: Collective Bargaining Laws as Agents of Political Mobilization.” American Journal of Political Science 59(4): 896–911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Richard B. and Han, Eunice. 2012. “The War against Public Sector Collective Bargaining in the US.” Journal of Industrial Relations 54(3): 386–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Goldfield, Michael. 1989. “Public Sector Union Growth and Public Policy.” Policy Studies Journal 18(2): 404–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, Matt and Hopkins, Daniel A.. 2015. “Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats: The Asymmetry of American Party Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 13(1): 119–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S. and Pierson, Paul. 2011. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer - And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S. and Pierson, Paul. 2014. “After the ‘Master Theory’: Downs, Schattschneider, and the Rebirth of Policy-Focused Analysis.” Perspectives on Politics 12(3): 643–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halpin, Darren and Nownes, Anthony. 2012. “Reappraising the Survival Question: Why We Should Focus on Interest Group Organizational Form and Careers.” In Interest Group Politics, ed. Cigler, Allan J. and Loomis, Burdett A. 8th ed. 52–73. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, John Mark. 1985. “The Political Economy of Group Membership.” American Political Science Review 79(1): 79–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartney, Michael T. 2015. “Review of Daniel DiSalvo, Government against Itself. Public Union Power and Its Consequences (Oxford University Press).” The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics 13(2): 347–54.Google Scholar
Hartney, Michael T. and Flavin, Patrick. 2011. “From the Schoolhouse to the Statehouse: Teacher Union Political Activism and State Education Reform Policy.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 11(3): 251–68.10.1177/1532440011413079CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander. 2018. “Policy Feedback as Political Weapon: Conservative Advocacy and the Demobilization of the Public Sector Labor Movement.” Perspectives on Politics 16(2): 364–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander, Skocpol, Theda, and Sclar, Jason. 2018. “When Political Mega-Donors Join Forces: How the Koch Network and the Democracy Alliance Influence Organized U.S. Politics on the Right and Left.” Studies in American Political Development 32(2): 127–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, Barry T. and Macpherson, David A.. 2003. “Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 56(2): 349–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hrebenar, Ronald J. and Thomas, Clive S.. 2004. “Interest Groups in the States.” In Politics in the American States, ed. Gray, Virginia and Hanson, Russell L.. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Ichniowski, Casey and Zax, Jeffrey S.. 1991. “Right-to-Work Laws, Free Riders, and Unionization in the Local Public Sector.” Journal of Labor Economics 9(3): 255–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin and Katchanovski, Ivan. 2001. “The Future of Private Sector Unions in the U.S.” Journal of Labor Research 22(2): 229–44.10.1007/s12122-001-1031-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin and Meltz, Noah. 2004. The Paradox of American Unionism. Why Americans Like Unions More Than Canadians But Join Much Less. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lowery, David. 2013. “Lobbying Influence: Meaning, Measurement and Missing.” Interest Groups & Advocacy 2(1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowery, David and Gray, Virginia. 2004. “A Neopluralist Perspective on Research on Organized Interests.” Political Research Quarterly 57(1): 163–75.10.2307/3219843CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malin, Martin H. 2012. “The Legislative Upheaval in Public-Sector Labor Law: A Search for Common Elements.” Labor Lawyer 27(2): 147–64.Google Scholar
Malkus, Nat. 2018. “Predicting the Future of Teachers’ Unions after Janus.” American Enterprise Institute, June 20. Available at http://www.aei.org/spotlight/predicting-the-future-of-teachers-unions-after-janus/.Google Scholar
Martin, Andrew W. 2007. “Organizational Structure, Authority and Protest: The Case of Union Organizing in the United States, 1990–2001.” Social Forces 85(3): 1413–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John David. 2005. “Persistence and Change among Nationally Federated Social Movements.” In Social Movements and Organization Theory, ed. Davis, Gerald F., 193–225. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1981. “Toward a Broader View of Interest Groups.” Journal of Politics 43(2): 531–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 2011. Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 2015. “Vested Interests and Political Institutions.” Political Science Quarterly 130(2): 277–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, William. 1998. “The Determinants and Effects of Right-To-Work Laws: A Review of the Recent Literature.” Journal of Labor Research 19(3): 445–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nownes, Anthony J., Thomas, Clive S., and Hrebenar, Ronald J.. 2007. “Interest Groups in the States.” In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Gray, Virginia and Hanson, Russell L.. 9th ed., 98–126. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Olney, Brian. 2014. “Paycheck Protection or Paycheck Deception? When Government ‘Subsidies’ Silence Political Speech.” UC Irvine Law Review 4: 881–938.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Quinton, Sophie. 2018. “Lawmakers in Blue States Try to Protect Organized Labor.” Pew Charitable Trusts. Stateline, August 1.Google Scholar
Saltzman, Gregory. 1985. “Bargaining Laws as a Cause and Consequences of the Growth of Teacher Unionism.” Industrial Labor Relations Review 38(3): 335–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Verba, Sidney, and Brady, Henry E.. 2012. The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 2003. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda and Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander. 2016. “The Koch Network and Republican Party Extremism.” Perspectives on Politics 14(3): 681–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, Ganz, Marshall, and Munson, Ziad. 2000. “A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States.” American Political Science Review 94(3): 527–46.10.2307/2585829CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toutant, Charles. 2018. “Lawsuit Claims NJ Union Dues Law Violates SCOTUS’ ‘Janus’ Ruling.” New Jersey Law Journal, October 4.Google Scholar
Valletta, Robert G. and Freeman, Richard B.. 1988. “The NBER Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law Data Set.” In When Public Employees Unionize, ed. Freeman, Richard B. and Ichniowski, Casey. Chicago: NBER and University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wade, Magic M. 2018. “Targeting Teachers While Shielding Cops? The Politics of Punishing Enemies and Rewarding Friends in American State Collective Bargaining Reform Agendas.” Journal of Labor and Society 21: 137–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Alexis N. 2014. “Labor’s Enduring Divide: The Distinct Path of Public Sector Unions in the United States.” Studies in American Political Development 28(2): 175–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Jack L. 1983. “The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America.” The American Political Science Review 77(2): 390–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wieder, Ben. 2012. “Unions Adapt to New Rules in States, Even as They Fight to Reverse Them.” Pew Charitable Trusts. Stateline, January 12.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q. 1973. Political Organizations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Winkler, Amber M., Scull, Janie, and Zeehandelaar, Dara. 2012. How Strong are U.S. Teacher Unions? A State-By-State Comparison. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.Google Scholar
Zax, Jeffrey S. and Ichniowski, Casey. 1990. “Bargaining Laws and Unionization in the Local Public Sector.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 43: 447–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zax, Jeffrey S. and Ichniowski, Casey. 1991. “Excludability and the Effects of Free Riders: Right-To-Work Laws and Local Public Sector Unionization.” Public Finance Quarterly 19: 293–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Finger and Hartney Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IH1AJS
Link